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Manjit Bawa's Punjabi food festival
New Delhi: Celebrated artist Manjit Bawa, a resident of the Capital, has gone beyond his Punjabi origins steeping himself in art that is universal, a reflection of wonders of the human mind. And yet the multi-talented Bawa often ventures beyond too, reaching newer frontiers of his essential Punjabiyat, calling it art all the same. He recently played master-chef at a Punjabi Food Festival organised in Delhi by the Punjabi Culinary academy. Experimenting with something new each time, the creative impulse, is quite up his street too. "I like to blend food. Suppose I am making in summer mutton or chicken I like to add palak or some vegetable on it or potato in it. Or making "keema" I like to add beet-root or some kind of vegetable. Or maybe I can put anything to balance te summer heat because it becomes very hot for the body specially in the North," says Bawa. Richly laid out Punjabi fare, the delight of the epicurean, hugely popular in the capital, a centre of Punjabi cuisine. Executive Chef Shivanand Kaif opines: "North Indian in Delhi is mostly dominated by Punjabi food only. Basic gravies of onion- tomato, garam masala and spices have basically been adopted from Punjabi food only. So, main food in Delhi has a touch of Punjab in it. Whether it's any vegetable curry that you eat, anything that you get in the market has a Punjabi touch in it. Use of tandoor with tandoori chicken in it, tandoori paneer has all the Punjabi touch in it. So I will say that north Indian food is mainly dominated by Punjabi food." 'Machchli Amritsari' to 'Jalandhari Chicken', a variety of chicken tikkas and more, were the flavour of the season at the Punjabi food festival last week.
The
authentic and traditional gourmet Punjabi food plus the steady stream
of food-lovers and guests provided just the perfect setting for uninhibited
eating for the foodie and the calorie- counting individual in equal measure.
A bit of warm Punjabi hospitality rubbed off on all those present who
relinquished themselves to the distinctive flavours of Punjabi cuisine.
With Delhi's huge Punjabi population and the huge Punjabi influence in
lifestyle, the restaurants and eateries too offer that authentic Punjabi
touch as perhaps nowhere else outside the state itself. And it draws the
resident and the tourist alike. An almost Bohemian simplicity and extraneousness,
finding reflection on his work - the tender observations and deep insights.
62 year old Manjit Bawa, through his artistic expression, may pass off
as a sufi saint, a simplistic love for art and humanity for their sake.
Inspired by nature and moved by an inherent compassion for all life-forms,
the feeling comes through in his works. Bawa's paintings, humans and animals,
almost engage in a wordless dialogue that throws its participants back
onto an older, nearly forgotten language, of instinct and intuition, of
the universal language of communication. Call that an aspect, a mirror
to the personality of the artist. Says curator and filmmaker Ina Puri,
"After all you have to be honest to yourself and then to your art. Honesty
is most important and because his philosophy is about caring. That is
where the philosophy of Sufism also perhaps comes in. That you are thinking
about love, you are thinking about universal brotherhood. That is reflected
in his actions first and then translated into his art or into the canvas."
-April 9, 2004
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